Revamping an e-commerce platform to transform shoppers’ experience

PhiShop 2.0: Creating the foundation for seamless scalability and growth.

We teamed up with one of the world’s leading beauty companies in the permanent make-up sector along with Shopware and Vanilla Reply, completely rebuilding PhiAcademy’s B2B e-commerce platform from scratch to ensure seamless and sustainable scalability and growth.

The relaunch enabled efficient management of nearly 1,000 products across multiple languages, currencies, and highly customised customer groups as well as supporting international shipping and operations in over 160 countries with over 100,000 orders per year.

1,000

products

160+

countries

100,000+

orders annually

Impact and numbers

Revenue increased by 132%

Conversion rate up by 26%

Session duration up by 25%

Transactions up by 6.5%

Bounce rate reduced by 11%

History

Founded in 2015, PhiAcademy pioneered a new approach to cosmetics, reintroducing the ancient art of microblading to the modern world. With a focus on quality products and innovative training programs, particularly through online learning platforms, PhiAcademy redefined the traditional beauty profession, creating a fast-growing community of “PhiArtists”. Today, PhiAcademy boasts a thriving and continually expanding global community of over 100.000 artists operating in over 160 countries.

Outgrowing the old e-commerce platform

Despite its success, PhiAcademy faced limitations with regard to its Magento 2 e-commerce platform.

Multiple third-party acquisitions and individual developments resulted in inflexibility and errors, particularly in terms of managing customer-specific features. The need for a new system that seamlessly integrated with business operations and accommodated rapid growth became pressing. It was time for a change.

Seeking a flexible, scalable, sustainable solution

The new system had to integrate seamlessly with PhiAcademy’s complex business structure, fostering innovation and accommodating the company’s growth trajectory. Streamlined processes, automated workflows, and an enhanced user experience were paramount, as was the ability to adapt quickly to changing requirements while maintaining quality standards.

From concept to reality: partnering for success

PhiAcademy sought a partner capable of delivering a performant, proactive, and constantly evolving PhiShop. A complex tender was conducted to find the right software solution to build upon as well as the ideal development partner to deliver and keep up with PhiAcademy. The chosen partner would have to embrace complexity, demonstrate quality assurance, and provide extended support beyond standard business hours.

Ideation & concept development

The design approach along with brainstorming sessions focused on scalability, user experience, and global reach ultimately led to the adoption of Shopware 6 together with Platform.sh due to its flexibility and rapid development capabilities. We were the first to ever do so in this context. This combination enabled quick prototyping with automated testing, and Shopware’s API-first approach allowed for easy automation and future enhancements.

The result

months

80%

of customers via mobile devices

From scratch to production in only 4 months. The new PhiShop prioritised mobile accessibility since 80% of customers access the platform via mobile devices. Improved performance, enhanced user engagement and experience, and robust tracking capabilities were critical.

Key results

Support for 5+ customer groups with specific processes, pricing, checkouts, payment/shipping methods, and custom product visibility/buyability. Full system redesign for a seamless interface and improved usability

Support for six currencies and five languages

Mobile-first (re)design combined with a hybrid mobile app for iOS & Android

An automated VAT verification process with tax calculations accordingly supporting the OSS regulations

Automated certificate verification processes

Integration with the banibis ERP system for seamless data flow

Live price inquiry for express delivery

Affiliate program

The future

User feedback highlighted enhanced usability, and future plans include further optimising the user experience and expanding the product range.

The team

Consultant

Client testimonial

“Thanks to good cooperation and planning, we were able to transition our shop to Shopware in a relatively short period of time.”

Paul Stuefer

Former Head of E-Commerce & Marketing at PhiAcademy GmbH

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